COLUMN: Dros rape: Media must strive to minimise harm

Like everyone else Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) is appalled by the rape of a child in a restaurant. While brutally clear as an act, the issues it raises are complex and varied and touch on almost every aspect of our nation’s wounds and apartheid legacy.

On top of it all, the trauma is amplified, resonated and recycled through social media.The tragic reality is that each day just over 64 children are sexually assaulted (SAPS 2017/18 figures) and these are the ones that make it to the SAPS.

In the majority of cases (approximately 60%) the perpetrators are known to the children and are within their social circle. The case of the child being raped by a stranger in a restaurant is unusual and the brazenness in which it occurred, together with it being in a middle class area and the immediacy of social media and witnesses releasing the information make it ripe for extensive news coverage.